kde

Netbooks are currently the hottest selling computers on the market right now for good reason but something is still missing from them, a good interface.  Still in the Alpha stage is Ubuntu’s Netbook Remix (UNR) but its pretty much just a skin for the standard Ubuntu.  HP also has a Netbook interface but again it is basically an over sized taskbar.

Thankfully the makers of the K Desktop Environment (KDE) for Linux are not satisfied with simply re-skinning a user interface and actually want to make a true Netbook interface.

  • We aren’t making an interface for a “smaller laptop” or a “larger handheld”; the interface is for a netbook, which has a unique set of use cases and should have a unique, if familiar, user interface. To our knowledge, nobody is really doing this yet. We feel that just as Apple made popular an interface style on handhelds that is for handhelds with their iPhone/iPod touch interface, netbooks deserve a similar treatment.
  • Being based on libplasma, we don’t have to start from scratch. In fact, the bulk of the work is already done. This will give us a nice showcase for the concept of a “primary user interface framework” and how it can be used to reapply existing work to new physical form factors with minimal investments.
  • Being based on libplasma, it will automagically work with other Plasma tools. This will make working with a Plasma netbook and a Plasma laptop together easy and coherent, especially when the SoC projects on things like network transparency in libplasma come to fruition in KDE 4.4.
  • Being part of the Plasma project, it will share the visual identity of the Plasma desktop shell: you will be able to put your netbook next to your laptop/desktop and they will look like they belong together. Only Apple manages to do this with their products right now.
  • Because it’s not some esoteric software stack all welded together with a kernel and various “made for mobile only” toolkit work, it will be easy for people to get involved and work with it.
  • The emphasis in the design is on full screen usage, speed to information, integration with applications and visual beauty.

The new version of KDE 4.2.2 is really a good interface and it is starting to look like KDE 4.4 will be a really good release.  The one thing that I think KDE has been missing is a Windows version that would replace the standard Windows shell (Start menu, taskbar etc.).  They do currently have a Windows version but it is only the applications that come with KDE and not the actual interface.  If they did make a version of KDE that could also run on Windows based Netbooks they might find that they could dominate the Netbook market with this.

Check It Out> aseigo via Netbook news and Liliputing, Ubuntu Netbook Remix